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STUDY PROTOCOL article

Front. Digit. Health
Sec. Health Technology Implementation
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2024.1496170
This article is part of the Research Topic New approaches for central nervous system rehabilitation - Volume II View all articles

STARTthe Swiss tele-assisted rehabilitation and training program to support transition from inpatient to outpatient care in the subacute phase after a stroke: Feasibility, safety and performance evaluation

Provisionally accepted
Szabina Gäumann Szabina Gäumann 1Carina Ziller Carina Ziller 1Nele Paulissen Nele Paulissen 1Frank Behrendt Frank Behrendt 1,2Zorica Suica Zorica Suica 1Björn Crüts Björn Crüts 3Luana Gammerschlag Luana Gammerschlag 3Katrin Parmar Katrin Parmar 1,4Hans Ulrich Gerth Hans Ulrich Gerth 1,5Leo H Bonati Leo H Bonati 1,4Corina Schuster-Amft Corina Schuster-Amft 1,2,4*
  • 1 Reha Rheinfelden, Rheinfelden, Switzerland
  • 2 Bern University of Applied Sciences, Bern, Bern, Switzerland
  • 3 Blended Clinic AI, Nuremberg, Germany
  • 4 University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  • 5 University Hospital Münster, Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Effective rehabilitation is essential to prevent physical and cognitive decline, but many stroke patients face challenges to maintain rehabilitation efforts after hospital discharge. Telerehabilitation, delivered via digital platforms, represents a promising approach for intensive continuation of stroke rehabilitation after discharge. The Swiss tele-assisted rehabilitation and training program (START), delivered through the Blended Clinic mobile application, seeks to support patients to start during inpatient rehabilitation, continue during the transition to the home environment, continue until outpatient rehabilitation starts and beyond.The study aims to evaluate feasibility, safety and performance of the START program on the Blended Clinic platform during inpatient, transition, and outpatient rehabilitation with patients in the early and late subacute phase after a stroke. Furthermore, patients' functional status, mobility and activity level, and health-related quality of life are monitored.Methods: This single-center feasibility trial with three measurement sessions will include 40 patients, who will be introduced to START during their inpatient rehabilitation. Patients will continue for 12 weeks post-discharge. For the feasibility assessment, process-, training-and mHealth-related parameter will be evaluated, which include recruitment rate, process-evaluation, safety, adherence, drop-out rate, stability and maintenance of the system, usability, quality, satisfaction, user and program experience, and perceived change. Secondary outcomes will focus on motor function, mobility, quality of life, activity level, heart rate, blood pressure, and performancebased measures.Discussion: The study's strengths include its foundation in previous usability analyses, which informed refinements to the START program. The study's design is based on the ISO 14155 standard, ensuring high standards for medical device research and supporting the future certification of the START program on the Blended Clinic platform. Potential challenges include patient selfreporting via the mobile application and barriers related to technology use among older adults and older mobile devices. Additionally, the availability of coaching is limited to business hours, which may affect adherence. Despite these challenges, the study's findings will provide insights into the feasibility of mobile-based telerehabilitation and guide the design of a future randomized controlled trial.

    Keywords: telerehabilitation, Stroke, training, coaching, Monitoring, feasibility, Safety, performance

    Received: 13 Sep 2024; Accepted: 23 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Gäumann, Ziller, Paulissen, Behrendt, Suica, Crüts, Gammerschlag, Parmar, Gerth, Bonati and Schuster-Amft. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Corina Schuster-Amft, Reha Rheinfelden, Rheinfelden, Switzerland

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.